


Brown

by especiallythezefronposter



Series: Equals [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2013-10-13
Packaged: 2017-12-29 07:45:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/especiallythezefronposter/pseuds/especiallythezefronposter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki returns to his daughter in Helheim.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brown

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place right after the first work in this series, so reading that one first will help. Every month (starting in September and ending in June) I will write another fic telling the story of Thor and Loki. Every fic will be based on another colour. This month's colour is brown.

Hel was waiting for Loki when he arrived in Helheim. She hugged him when the white light faded, almost smiling. 'Father,' she said softly. 'I'm glad you've come.' She stepped back and lifted her hand to keep him from saying something. 'I know what you want, even if you would never ask for it,' she said, studying him. 'You can have Helheim for as long as you want. I prefer Niflheim, so I won't bother you here.'

Hel didn't look like Loki at all, even though she was his daughter. Her hair was dark and her skin pale, but her eyes were purple and her face was beautiful, but somehow terrifying and full of fury. She was almost taller than he was and the spear she always carried with her was disguised as a dark brown bracelet around her wrist. He couldn't tell what colour the armour she was wearing had. It reflected the dark purple stones and orange fires of Helheim like a mirror, so that she fit in perfectly, almost disappeared where they were standing at the foot of her palace.

Loki took a step forward and took her hand. 'You could never bother me,' he said, but she talked over him.

'You will have to rule in my place, of course. I'd love to be able to focus on one realm for once. Just know that no one can know you're here, even my most trusted servants. Pretend to be me whenever they're around, and I can guarantee your safety. Remember to never let your guard down. I'm your flesh and blood, but anyone else would sell you out to Odin in the blink of an eye.' She softly squeezed his fingers.

 _Except for Thor,_ he thought, but then he remembered what Thor had said. _You will never return to Asgard or Midgard again, and if you do, it will be your death._ He had given Loki one chance, and one chance was nothing when you had all eternity to make one mistake.

He squeezed back. 'Thank you,' he said with a sad smile. Then he looped his arm in hers and walked her to the edge of the cliff her palace was located on. Underneath them, the shadows of the dead were drifting over endless fields in a silence he hadn't heard during his stay in Midgard. 'How are you?', he asked her.

She sighed. 'The loveless are always fine. You should be worried about yourself for once. Thor i-'

Loki lifted his hand. 'I don't want to talk about it,' he said, and that was the end of the conversation.

They stood there for hours, looking out over the dark, purplish world of the afterlife in a pleasant silence that was only broken by their hearts, the only two beating in this Realm.

Only hours later a third heart's thrumming was added to the steady rhythm of theirs. Loki heard it before Hel did and in the split second it took for the intruder to appear, he merged into the shadows. Then, Vidar was standing in front of them. 

Hel spun around, her spear appearing in her hand. 

Vidar was one of Thor's brothers, and Loki only knew him as the one that was destined to kill his son Fernir, the largest and most dangerous dog of the Nine Realms. That was probably why Vidar was holding Fernir's head in his hands. He dropped it in front of Hel with and apologetic smile. 'The Allfather wants me to tell you that people will keep on dying if Loki doesn't come back to Asgard. Fernir is only the first of many.' Then he was gone and Loki reappeared as Hel's spear clattered to the ground and she knelt beside her brother's head.

'They captured his soul in Asgard,' she said softly, touching Fernir's ears. 'Otherwise I could bring him back.' She looked up at Loki, eyes full of compassion, as if she hadn't just lost her brother. 'I'm sorry,' she said, rising back to her feet.

'Don't be,' he whispered as he picked up the head. 'This happened because of _me_.' He carried it to the graveyard at the other side of the palace, where the two sons he had already lost, Vali and Narfi, were buried. He had once cared about them as much as he cared about Hel, but Odin had killed them to punish Loki for trying to take his throne, and he hadn't even been there to stop him. 

'Don't even think for a second that this is your fault. Odin ordered Vidar to kill Fernir, not you. This won't stop when you go back to Asgard. He'll keep murdering people to punish you. There's nothing you can do about it, so stay here. I don't want to have to bury you, too.'

He would think about that later, so he didn't answer her. 

He knelt beside the graves Vali and Narfi and carefully set Fernir's head down. A shovel appeared in his hand. He dug the grave himself, without magic, and the earth underneath the thick layer of ash was brown. He buried his son's remains in the cold grave, and he couldn't seem to let the colour of the earth around the black head go.

Thor had always been red to him, and he himself green. Asgard was gold, Jotunheim blue, defeat purple and home orange, but brown had never been of importance in the life he remembered. It was the colour of a new start, he thought as looked down at the patch of churned earth that was the grave of the third son that had died because of him. A new life without Thor, without the shadow he so desperately had wanted to escape. 

Brown was letting go.


End file.
